Thomas Jefferson Foundation

We often describe Monticello as the best documented plantation in America. Partly that's because of the remarkable historical record left by Jefferson and his family that gives us not only the personal details -- names, birth dates, occupations, movements, and family relationships -- of hundreds of enslaved individuals, but information about plantings, harvests, work sites, dwellings, and the workings of a thriving internal economy at the plantation. But historical documents only tell a partial story, based on the perspectives and interests of their authors. In this episode of Sharing History, we look at another historical record, one literally hidden in the ground -- the archaeological record -- and how, in ways not always expected, it revolutionized our perception of Jefferson, Monticello, the surrounding plantation landscape, and the lives and labors of Monticello's enslaved community. Joining the discussion are Fraser Neiman, Monticello's Director of Archaeology, Jillian Galle, Project Director for the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery, and Douglas Sanford, a former Monticello archaeologist and retired professor in Historic Preservation from the University of Mary Washington. They tell the story of how archaeology transformed history at Monticello, and how their and their colleagues’ work in turn helped transform the field of historical archaeology.

In this episode of In the Course of Human Events, historians from Monticello's Getting Word African American Oral History Project share the recent rediscovery of Robert Hemmings’s signature, a revelation confirming the literacy and the agency of the man that Thomas Jefferson enslaved as his valet. As a teenage boy, Hemmings was at Jefferson's side in Philadelphia when he wrote the Declaration of Independence, and later gained his own freedom, becoming the first of very few to be freed by Jefferson. Listen as Andrew M. Davenport, Auriana Woods, and Bernetiae Reed discuss this discovery and describe the life of Robert Hemmings whose story inspired “Descendants of Monticello,” a new exhibition that recently opened at Independence National Historical Park's Declaration House in Philadelphia, PA. By moving Hemmings to the center of this moment in history, this project explores the entangled legacies of freedom and enslavement at the core of our nation’s founding. Since 1993, the Getting Word African American Oral History Project has collected and preserved the oral histories of Monticello’s enslaved community and their descendants, creating an archive of freedom and a fuller story of Monticello and the United States. Getting Word and other staff from the Thomas Jefferson Foundation worked with Monument Lab, the National Park Service, and other organizations to present “Descendants of Monticello,” which was conceived and developed by artist Sonya Y. Clark.

Monticello today is an American icon. It's Jefferson's architectural masterpiece and a symbol of the American story. It's on the back of the U.S. Nickel. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Replicas of it dot the American landscape, both real and imaginary. But it wasn't always so. At the end of the 19th century, many doubted Jefferson had even designed it. That changed with the rediscovery of Jefferson's architectural drawings in the early 20th century. What followed is a story of remarkable careers, passionate dedication, economic challenges, and innovative approaches that have made Monticello one of the most enduring places in the American imagination.